The First 24 Hours

19 July 2011 | South Atlantic

John

We departed Cape Town on Monday afternoon with just a touch of cloud in the sky and the lightest of breeze out of the west - certainly not enough wind to sail by. Earlier in the morning I had downloaded the latest seven day weather forecast, which had predicted very little wind for the first few days and a southerly breeze out of the south when about 300 to 400 nautical miles northwest of Cape Town. True to the forecast, we have been motor-sailing since our departure.

Wihan has been the only person that has suffered a bit from motion sickness. Actually, I think it was more from nerves than the motion, as he was already a bit pale before we had cast off our dock lines. He is now fine and appears to be enjoying himself - he did manage a double helping of macaroni cheese for dinner this evening (Tuesday night).

I have started reporting into the South African Maritime Mobile Net, run by Graham ZS2ABK from close to the city of East London on the South African east coast. This is a Ham network that has been in existence for well over 30 years and is one of the radio networks that I have been reporting to for many years. I pass on our position and current weather and in return get the prediction for the next 24 hours as forecast by the South African Weather Service. This is a great service that I can use in conjunction with the weather information I also get from the US NOAA weather service.

Tomorrow morning we are going to put out a fishing line for the first time and try our luck in catching some nice long-fin Tuna, although we can only really afford to catch one for dinner as our freezer is well stocked and there is little space to pur much fish until we have had a few meat dinners to start making room for the fish.

Well, enough waffling from me - I am on watch until midnight and need to keep a good eye open for any other shipping in our vicinity. So, cheers for now from Wihan, Byron and myself, John.

Add A Comment

Error Inserting Comment

Your Name(success)

Your Email (this is not displayed)(success)

Your Comment(success)

Vessel Name:

Ultima Life

Vessel Make/Model:

Majestic 53

Hailing Port:

Cape Town

Crew:

John

About:

John Titterton has sailed over 350 000 nm in the years he has been delivering sailing vessels. He has sailed the Mediterranean Sea, South and North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Pacific with a bit of the Indian Ocean thrown in for luck! This blog follows his deliveries as they occur. [...]
John is also a qualified radio ham who holds the call ZS1JNT often with a MM suffix. MM stands for Maritime Mobile in Radio Ham parlance.